Donald Trump

Anatomy of the Phone Call Now Imperiling Trump’s Presidency


Trump Impeachment Phone Call
Wayne Partlow/AP, File

There were dozens of ears listening to President Donald Trump's 30-minute phone call with the leader of Ukraine that is at the center of a House impeachment inquiry, and as many eyes that saw what he said.


They represent a universe of people, little known outside their vital circle of national security officials, who can either support or disavow the whistleblower's account. Their roles could well become more public as the impeachment investigation unfolds and Congress seeks additional witnesses.

Some staffers involved with the call still work at the White House; others have left. But what was thought to be a routine conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy turned into anything but that, when Trump asked him to investigate Ukraine's involvement in the 2016 presidential election and the activities of Democratic political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

By the time staffers in the Situation Room got the president of Ukraine on the phone at 9:03 a.m., Trump had just finished firing off tweets claiming complete vindication from former special counsel Robert Mueller's congressional testimony the day before about the Russia investigation. On the call, Trump was first to speak. He showered the 41-year-old Ukrainian, a novice politician and former comedian, with praise following his party's victory in parliamentary elections. Zelenskiy chatted about how he wanted to "drain the swamp" in Kyiv and how he wished the European Union would provide more financial support. He told Trump that Ukraine was ready to buy more Javelin anti-tank missiles from the United States.

The next 10 words that came out of Trump's mouth — "I would like you to do us a favor, though" — are what triggered the House impeachment inquiry that has imperiled his presidency.

Trump asked Zelenskiy to work with Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr to look into Biden and his son, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.

Trump says it was an innocent, "perfect" call. But some White House staffers, worried that Trump seemed to be asking Ukraine for dirt on Biden, sounded alarms. They suggested the memorandum of the call — "telcon" for short — be transferred into a restricted server, usually reserved for documents about covert operations.



"Judging from the content of the Trump-Zelenskiy call, Trump was not reading talking points," McFaul said. "No one on our team ever would have prepared a call package prompting Obama to ask for a personal favor that would help him win reelection. I also doubt that Trump's NSC staff would have written or cleared such a talking point for their boss."

One individual with firsthand knowledge of how the Trump calls with foreign leaders are handled said the president "hates" such "pre-briefs" and frequently has refused to do them. Trump doesn't like written background materials either, preferring to handle the calls himself, often in the morning from the residence. Occasionally, while on the phone with foreign heads of state, Trump has handed the receiver to his daughter, Ivanka Trump, so she can talk with the leader, according to this individual.




During the Ukraine call, several others listened in. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Keith Kellogg, national security adviser for Vice President Mike Pence, were on the call. It's unclear if they were at the White House or listened in on "drop" lines, secure hookups top officials can use from outside the White House.

Others who typically would have listened in would have been the president's national security adviser, John Bolton, or his deputy, Charles Kupperman, who have both left the White House; the NSC's director of Russia and Europe, who currently is Tim Morrison; the NSC's Ukraine expert; and possibly someone from White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney's office.

Lawyers who handle NSC issues include John Eisenberg and his deputy, Michael Ellis. It's unclear what, if any, role Ellis played, but the former counsel for the House Intelligence Committee has been in the spotlight before.


The NSC declined to confirm who was on the call.


"When I got to the Situation Room and my predecessor explained this incredibly inefficient process that we use, I had a lot of questions," said Larry Pfeiffer, a 30-year U.S. intelligence veteran who managed the Situation Room during the Obama years. "I said 'Why don't we just record the call and write a transcript based on that?'"




That draft is given to subject matter specialists on the NSC, who edit the draft for accuracy. Each draft is separately preserved. After it's finalized, it's turned over to the national security adviser — Bolton, at the time — or the deputy, who was Kupperman, for their approval. White House lawyers also play a role in approving NSC documents.



He released it after a whistleblower, a CIA officer, filed a complaint about the call with the intelligence community's inspector general. "In the days following the phone call, I learned from multiple U.S. officials that senior White House officials had intervened to lock down" all records of the phone call, the whistleblower wrote. "This set of actions underscored to me that White House officials understood the gravity of what had transpired in the call."


One of the two people familiar with how foreign leader calls are handled in the Trump White House said putting a document classified only as "secret" into a server holding very highly classified information is not against any rule, but is a means of "leak prevention."



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